North Korea Detains Fourth US Citizen, Another Korean American PUST Faculty

(Photo : Wikimedia Commons / CC) The panmunjeom view from North to South Korea.

Just over two weeks after Korean American Tony Kim was detained in North Korea, the Kim regime has detained yet another Korean American, named Kim Hak-Song.

Kim Hak-Song, who was detained on May 6, was also an employee of Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST), where Tony Kim had been teaching for a month before he was detained.

According to a statement from the university, Kim Hak-Song was working at PUST’s agricultural farm.

He was arrested for allegedly carrying out “hostile criminal acts” against North Korea, according to the regime’s Korean Central News Agency.

No other details have been released regarding his detainment.

Both PUST and the U.S. State Department said that they are aware Kim has been arrested.

"We understand that this detention is related to an investigation into matters that are not connected in any way with the work of PUST. Therefore, we cannot comment on anything,” PUST said in an email to NBC News.

"Life on campus and the teaching at PUST is continuing as normal,” said PUST.

“When a U.S. citizen is reported to be detained in North Korea, we work with the Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang, which serves as the United States’ Protecting Power in North Korea,” a spokesperson from the State Department said to CNN. “Due to privacy considerations, we have no further comment.”

PUST is a private university that has Christian roots, and is funded mostly by Christians outside of the country, according to reports. According to NBC News, the former president of PUST, James Kim, has been known as an evangelical Christian and missionary.

Kim Hak-Song was born in China, received university education in the United States, and became a U.S. citizen in the 2000s.

Along with Kim Hak-Song and Tony Kim, two other U.S. citizens are currently detained in North Korea: Kim Dong-Chul, who was sentenced to 10 years of hard labor, and Otto Warmbier, who was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor.

Korean Canadian pastor Hyeon Soo Lim has also been detained in North Korea since January of 2015.

After two years, six months, and nine days of absence, Rev. Hyeon Soo Lim returned to the pulpit of Light Presbyterian Church in Toronto during its Sunday service on August 13, and greeted the congregants. Lim then expressed gratitude toward Christians all over the world who had prayed fervently for his release, as well as toward the government leaders in Canada who had gathered their efforts to bring him home.

Hyeon Soo Lim, Korean Canadian Pastor, Released from Detainment in North Korea

World Aug 09, 2017

A Korean Canadian pastor who had been detained in North Korea for two and a half years was released on Wednesday over health reasons, a North Korean news agency reported.